Chapter 0:

A Brief Intro to Vessels

Character Compendium


A Technician’s Breakthrough

“You can do it, I always believed in you.”

Her voice calmed him a little. The machine had barely begun to warm up, and already his nerves were breaking him. It had been his choice, to volunteer for this. He had perfected the models now. They worked, the few that had been successful proved it. They may only have been non-functioning, simple housings, but this vessel he was going to transfer his soul into, was the first of a finished product.

He would have full functionality of the vessel. Small electrodes had been placed near all of his main nerve endings. In moments, his consciousness would be sent into this new body. The voice of his wife was comforting. A small warmth, like a hand cupping your cheek.

His eyes closed with that thought, and when they opened, he winced at the bright lights. He instinctively put his arm up to block out the light. His arm didn’t move. There was just a sharp pang, it ran from his forearm all the way to his spinal cord. Two more pulsing zaps of pain followed. Each starting slightly farther up his arm than the last. 

Loud beeps began echoing in the room. The lights winked out for a moment. Then flashed back on, repeating the off and on again faster and faster.

Logan blinked, trying to adjust his vision to the strobing. This was way more intense then what he had expected. The computer simulations had been easy enough, even a remote pilot had been successful. The pain was never mentioned. How could machinery communicate pain though?

“Can someone hear me?” He called out. Testing his voice, hoping someone could explain what was causing the torturous pain. Each movement of his body was sending shockwaves of fire radiating up his spine. He was flexing his fingers, and his cervical nerves were becoming over excited, but his extremities were beginning to respond. His struggling attempts to move, despite the pain, were finally paying off  

No one answered. The blaring alarm the only sound still echoing. The strobe lights made the shadows dance eerily. Logan tried to take a step forward, finding himself slightly suspended above the ground. His feet barely brushed the metal grating below. He twisted his head backwards, unable to turn it farther than a few degrees either way. Something was jammed into the back of his neck. He started to panic, what had gone wrong?

Suddenly; icons, colored bars, telemetries, and all other sorts of personal data, began to appear in his vision.

He must still be loading into his new vessel. He had awoken before being one hundred percent transferred over. The thing jabbed into his neck had to be the data transfer connection. Logan took a long breath, sucking in, and in, and in. He had been inhaling for nearly a full minute before realizing that his body wasn’t stopping him.

He had taken in enough gasses, to raise several small pressure dials in his vision. He didn’t feel like his lungs were filling, just that he had sufficient breath. This calmed him slightly. He was becoming more aware, hopefully soon he would begin retaining more memories and motor function.

Suddenly, the strobe lights stopped. Logan had grown accustomed to them finally, and now squinted at the lack of light. The darkness playing tricks on his mind. He could have sworn the long shadow of the wall next to him, grew a fourth dimension. Reaching upwards towards him with density.

Unable to move, he could only stare in horror as it wrapped around him. Some part of his mind knew this wasn’t real, but he couldn’t resist screaming in his head. If his vocal reactor would have worked, he probably would have blown it out from screaming so hard. 

Darkness enveloped him, Logan’s last memory was of a women, telling him how she believed in him. It played over and over for what seemed like forever, but the reality was it lasted for less than the time it took him to blink. Logan was gone, his soul was still contained in the vessel, but the man he used to be was no longer. The darkness twisted his aura into something sinister. 

The man who loved to tinker and design, who wouldn’t argue against someone unless absolutely necessary, now screamed in unbridled rage. He wasn’t alone, there had been several units up for full conversion tests. The room was kept at an absurdly low temperature. The shield doors that locked the vessels apart from the technicians, was covered in ice crystals. Computer screens showed detailed readings of all the vessels, monitoring for anything that would go wrong. 

The technicians that monitored the conversion all anxiously calibrated and took notes. If their mistress ever caught wind that they were on the edge of failure, they would face terrible consequences. 

The lead tech watched through the glass, as Logan, once one of them, lashed about in rage. His vessel was still locked to the housing table, but his movements were beginning to damage it. If he broke free, he would destroy everything in a rage induced rampage. Several cycles of work would be trashed. 

Before the terror of that thought could fully manifest however, the freight elevator dinged. Signaling the arrival of a newcomer. A few techs looked up in happiness, joyful that a new wave of help would be joining them. The room grew noticeably tense however, as the sharp clicks of a single pair of heels strode out of the freight entrance. Mistress Nyx, master of the mansion, creator of all, destroyer of anything she grew displeased with, joined the techs in watching the conversion.